From February 5 to 8, more than 8 thousand attendees, including upper elementary and high school students, parents and academic staff from schools in the region, attended the event. Semper Altius Network from Mexico, El Salvador and Colombia gathered in Villahermosa, Tabasco to experience together the first edition of the Semper Altius Award.
For the first time, the Instituto Cumbres Villahermosa, headed by Dr. Luis Fernando Bedoya, hosted one of the Network's most important international events, the Semper Altius Award. For more than six months, the Institute's staff prepared to receive the more than 3,000 upper elementary and high school students and the more than 5,000 attendees, including teachers, administrators and parents of the participating students.
The Semper Altius Award, formerly TAI, is an academic event in which upper elementary and high school students from the Semper Altius School Network put into practice multiple skills and demonstrate their ability in different academic, artistic and cultural competitions, which is also a training opportunity, as well as a unique and enriching learning experience for them.
On February 5, more than 8,000 attendees gathered at the Convention Center in Villahermosa, Tabasco, to inaugurate the event together. Prior to the inauguration, a mass was held with students and parents, consecrated members of Regnum Christi, consecrated laity of Regnum Christi and priests legionaries of Christ of Mexico and Central America.
The competitions were held on February 6 and 7 at the facilities of the Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco (UJAT). During these days, the students competed in the 15 categories of academic, artistic and cultural individual and team contests, in English and Spanish, in which they put into practice multiple skills and demonstrated their talents.
These were the competitions held during the first Semper Altius Award:
Spanish individual contests
- Mathematics against the clock
- Values in rhyme: declamation
- Words that transform: oratory
- Creative Writing
English individual contests
- English in action
- Transforming words: oratory
- Rhyming values: declamation
- Creative writing
Spanish team
- Mathematical reasoning
- #soyapostle: Catholic formation
English team
- Modern scientists
- Social tech challenge
New contests:
- Share your talent
- Ama-arte
- Checkmate
Dr. Monica Garcia de Luca, academic director of the Semper Altius School Network, shared the following during the event:
“Seeing elementary school children presenting their poetry or seeing them reach an agreement to solve problems is an educational and formative experience that transcends not only the lives of these young people, but also their family environment and their social environment, generating a virtuous circle that can help rebuild the social fabric”.
As part of the Semper Altius Award, a prize called the «Cor Unum Cup» is awarded, which is the highest recognition to the delegation that has most lived the virtues of our network of schools. This year the winning school was Andes Tuxtla Institute.
It is important to celebrate the learning and achievements of each of the participants in the area where they can best project their own talents: solving mathematical problems, reciting a poem, expressing themselves through public speaking, presenting a work of art, taking a written exam, working in a team for a common goal, among others.
We congratulate all the students who participated in this first edition of the Semper Altius Award, the parents for their invaluable support and all the teachers and administrators of the Semper Altius Network schools for their unconditional academic support.
We thank Instituto Cumbres Villahermosa for being an excellent host and for opening the doors of the school and Tabasco to us.
